This invention relates to a construction of mounting a wire harness for a door of an automobile or the like, and more particularly to a wire harness-mounting construction in which a bundled end portion of a wire harness to be connected to various electric parts mounted within a door frame is extended from a vehicle body, and is mounted on a door side plate through a mounting member and a grommet.
There have heretofore been proposed various constructions of mounting a wire harness for a door of an automobile or the like, in which a bundled end portion of the wire harness to be connected to various electric parts mounted within a door frame is extended from a vehicle body, and is mounted on a door side plate through a mounting member and a grommet.
FIG. 1 shows a door wire harness-mounting construction disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Examined Publication No. 2-46438, and this Figure shows a condition in which the mounting of a wire harness is completed. As shown in FIG. 2, a door frame F includes an inner plate portion F1, and a side plate portion F2, and a plurality of notches 51 for enabling necessary operations formed through the inner plate portion F1.
A generally L-shaped recess 52 is formed in a continuous manner in the side plate portion F2 (disposed at the door hinge side) and the inner plate portion F1 of the door frame F, and this recess is continuous with a notch 53 formed in the inner plate portion F1. Mounting recesses 54 are formed respectively in upper and lower edges of that-portion of the recess 52 formed in the side plate portion F2.
As shown in FIG. 1, a mounting member 55 of a generally L-shape is fixed to the mounting recesses 54, and an end portion of the door wire harness W is mounted to extend to a predetermined position through the mounting member 55. A bundle lead-out portion p is provided at that end of the door wire harness W to be connected to a cowl-side harness on a vehicle body, and a grommet g, made of a rubber material, is fitted on this bundle lead-out portion p. Namely, within the door panel, the wire harness W is divided into branch wires W1 to W5, and connectors C1 to C5 are connected respectively to ends of these branch wires, and are connected respectively to electric parts mounted on the door.
As shown in FIG. 3, the L-shaped mounting member 55 includes a wire harness lead-out portion 56 for engagement with the side plate portion F2 of the door frame, and a wire harness support portion 57 for engagement with the inner plate portion F1, and a wide wire harness-receiving groove 58 is formed in inner sides of the wire harness lead-out portion 56 and wire harness support portion 57.
A through hole 59 is formed through the wire harness lead-out portion 56, and mounting flanges 61 each having a mounting hole 60 are formed respectively on upper and lower sides of the wire harness lead-out portion 56. A hollow waterproof rubber cover 62 of a rectangular parallelepiped shape is fitted on the wire harness lead-out portion 56. This waterproof cover 62 has a through hole 63 aligned with the through hole 59 in the wire harness lead-out portion 56, and also has two through holes 64 through which the mounting flanges 61 pass, respectively.
For mounting the wire harness W on the mounting member 55, a flat portion of the wire harness W is bonded by an adhesive or the like to the inner surface of that portion of the receiving groove 58 formed in the wire harness support portion 57 of the mounting member 55, and the bundle lead-out portion p is passed through the through hole 59, and then an annular groove 65, formed in the grommet g, is fitted in a peripheral edge of the through hole 59.
Then, the waterproof cover 62 is fitted on the wire harness lead-out portion 56 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and in this condition, the mounting member 55 is fitted in the recess 52 (see FIG. 2) in the door frame F, and is fixed by screws 66 passing respectively through the mounting holes 60 formed respectively through the mounting flanges 61. After the mounting member 55 is thus mounted on the door frame F, a waterproof rubber member 67 is mounted on an inner edge portion of the door frame F, as shown in FIG. 1.
In the above conventional door wire harness-mounting construction, the generally L-shaped recess 52 is formed in the side plate portion F2 of the door frame, and extends to the operation hole 53 in the inner plate portion F1, and the wire harness W is supported between the generally L-shaped recess 52 and the generally L-shaped mounting member 55 fitted in this L-shaped recess. The bundle lead-out portion p of the wire harness is passed through the through hole 59 in the mounting member 55, and the end portion of the wire harness W is passed through the through hole 59 in the generally L-shaped mounting member, and then the mounting member 55 is fitted in the generally L-shaped recess 52, thereby fixing the end portion of the wire harness W.
In the above conventional door wire harness-mounting construction, however, when the recess 52 is formed in the door frame F, a curved portion R is formed at a corner portion K of this recess, so that a gap S is formed between the waterproof rubber member 67 and the mounting member 55, as can be seen from FIG. 6 which is a cross-sectional view showing the mounted condition. There has been encountered a problem that rain water or the like intrudes into this gap S.